2002-2003

WPI Professor Elected ASM International Trustee

Worcester, Mass.- November 27, 2002 - Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) professor Richard D. Sisson, Jr., was elected to the Board of Trustees of ASM International, the materials information society, during the society's annual business meeting in Columbus, Ohio last month. Sisson was one of three members elected to a three-year term on ASM International's 12-member board. Sisson has been an ASM International member for more than 30 years, and he was named a Fellow in 1993.

As a member of the Board of Trustees, Sisson will join the board in overseeing the business and financial aspects of ASM International operations. These activities include considering matters related to society policies, programs, finance, and other issues affecting broad aspects of society operations; establishing rules for the government of the society and recommending constitutional changes; and establishing other criteria and policies as are considered advisable for proper control of society operation.

For more than 25 years, Sisson has led an active career in academia at WPI. In addition to being a mechanical engineering professor, he is also the head of the Materials Science and Engineering Program at WPI. His teaching and research has focused on the applications of thermodynamics and kinetics to materials processing and degradation phenomena in metals and ceramics. Sisson has more than 100 publications and 100 technical presentations to his credit on topics ranging from synthesis of nanocrystalline ceramics to hydrogen embrittlement of high strength steels.

Currently, he is the principal investigator on the Center for Heat Treating Excellence's project, "Understanding, Controlling, and Optimizing the Quenching Process." He also is working with a group to develop a "Rules Based Design Software Tool to Determine the Manufacturing Process Parameters to Apply a Contoured Thermal Barrier Coating to a Turbine Blade."

"Professor Sisson has been recognized as a leader in his field and an outstanding educator," notes Grétar Tryggvason, head of WPI's Mechanical Engineering Department. "His more than 30 years of involvement in scientific and professional societies has helped advance material science and represented WPI well."

Sisson received his B.S. degree in metallurgical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, a M.S. degree in metallurgical engineering from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Purdue.

Prior to joining WPI in 1976 as the Morgan Distinguished Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Sisson held positions at Exxon Chemical, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and DuPont's Savannah River Laboratory.

In 1987, Sisson received the WPI Trustees Award for Outstanding Teaching. He currently serves on the Heat Treating Society Quenching and Cooling Committee, the MSCTS Atomic Transport Committee, and with the Surface Engineering Critical Technology Sector.

About ASM International

ASM International, The Materials Information Society, is the world's leading society for reliable information and data on metals, engineered materials and processes. The 36,000-member society is headquartered near Cleveland, Ohio.

About Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1865, WPI is a pioneer in technological higher education. WPI was the first university to understand that students learn best when they have the opportunity to apply the knowledge they gain in the classroom to the solution of important problems. Today its students, working in teams at more than 20 project centers around the globe, put their knowledge and skills to work as they complete professional-level work that can have an immediate positive impact on society.

WPI's innovative, globally focused curriculum has been recognized by leaders in industry, government and academia as the model for the technological education of tomorrow. Students emerge from this program as true technological humanists, well rounded, with the confidence, the interpersonal skills and the commitment to innovation they need to make a real difference in their professional and personal lives.

The university awarded its first advanced degree in 1898. Today, its first-rate research laboratories support master's and Ph.D. programs in more than 30 disciplines in engineering, science and the management of technology. Located in the heart of the region's biotechnology and high-technology sectors, WPI has built research programs-including the largest industry/university alliance in North America-that have won it worldwide recognition.